A Peru judge has ordered preventive custody for the suspected mastermind of the gruesome gang murders of two young women and a girl in Argentina, pending the outcome of Argentina’s extradition request.
The judge declared 20-year-old Tony Valverde, nicknamed “Little J”, to be a flight risk, and remanded him in custody for nine months while awaiting possible extradition on charges of aggravated murder.
The bodies of Morena Verdi and Brenda del Castillo, cousins aged 20, and 15-year-old Lara Gutierrez were found buried in the yard of a house in a southern suburb of Buenos Aires last week, five days after they went missing.
The three were tortured and killed in a live broadcast on a closed social media group in what Argentine authorities believe was punishment for an alleged drug theft.
Investigators said drug traffickers lured the young women into a van on September 19, the trio thinking they were going to a party.
According to several Argentine media outlets, the women had been asked to attend a party as sex workers.
A cousin of Brenda and Morena told AFP the pair had sometimes engaged in sex work “to survive”, without their families’ knowledge.
The killings caused widespread shock among the public in Argentina, with thousands of people demonstrating last weekend to demand justice.
Valverde is suspected of running a drug gang in the Zavaleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires.
His lawyer, Marcos Sandoval, has maintained his client’s innocence and claimed his work in Argentina involved harvesting blueberries and selling socks.
Valverde was arrested on Wednesday with a suspected Argentine accomplice, 28-year-old Matias Ozorio, in the southern Lima district of Pucusana.
On Wednesday, Ozorio was deported to his homeland.
In Argentina, seven people have been arrested over the murders.
– Agence France-Presse